Jason Eaves thinks law enforcement is out to destroy his Fort Madison business that sells adult novelty and smoking accessories, even though he says they are legal. / Mary Chind/The Register

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FORT MADISON, IA. — I told Jason Eaves from the get-go that many readers aren’t likely to have empathy for a guy who sells pot pipes and bongs.

But that was his point. The 41-year-old father of five and his supporters believe law enforcement officials have been out to destroy him because of his legal but controversial niche business in southeast Iowa.

The trouble began almost immediately after Eaves opened his novelty store, the Pleasure Factor, on the outskirts of Fort Madison in 2006. He said he received threatening letters and calls, and his place was tagged with graffiti.

But the problems grew into a full-blown crisis on March 3, after a swarm of drug agents descended on the business and seized products they thought were illegal “bath salts,” or synthetic cathinones. Lab tests later proved the substances for sale at the store were legal, but in Eaves’ mind the damage was done.

Most customers of the head shop and sex store were scared away. After the headlines, heads in town turned and Eaves said that many whispered that the former Fort Madison prison worker was a clandestine drug dealer. Two of his kids came home from school crying.

“It’s just ridiculous,” he says. “I was actually one of the youngest Eagle Scouts ever to come out of this region.”

Eaves’ question to me was: How could authorities get away with what they did?

In addition to racking up more than $40,000 in attorney fees, he alleges he was denied much-needed medications for a serious condition called Marfan syndrome when he was held in the Lee County Jail. He says his store sustained damage when a sump pump was left off after the raid. And merchandise disappeared when the building was left unlocked and the security system was disarmed.

All but one of the five serious charges filed against Eaves were dismissed in April. Eaves said he has yet to receive thousands of dollars in products back from investigators.

At least 41 states, including Iowa, have outlawed substances used to make synthetic marijuana and “bath salts.” In July, President Barack Obama signed into law a federal bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley that was named after Indianola High School graduate David Rozga, who killed himself in 2010 about 90 minutes after trying one of the drugs. The bill banned 28 more chemical compounds.

When I tried to get local authorities’ side of things, Fort Madison’s police chief and others pointed me to Lee County Attorney Mike Short. But Short, who initiated the search warrant at the Pleasure Factor, said he had no comment when I asked for more details and his side of the events.

In media accounts, Short said he had to drop four charges — including conspiracy and money laundering — because lab results from the Division of Criminal Investigation came back negative for illegal synthetic drugs.

In Iowa, those drugs have been a target of Iowa drug task forces, in large part because of a surge in emergency room admissions. The Iowa Poison Control Center has received 54 calls this year about synthetic drugs, 34 of which were regarding people being treated at health centers. Last year, there were 91 calls.

But there remains confusion — even in law enforcement — about what products are and are not legal. Police have also complained there are endless combinations of the synthetic compounds used to make the drugs, making it difficult to keep controlled substance laws up to date.

To be sure, Eaves is unlikely to have any friends in local law enforcement. He admits he used to sell K2, the herbal substance sprayed with chemicals that has caused a rash of overdoses and severe reactions by users across the country. In addition to novelty items like Horny Goat weed and “fake Viagra,” he now sells sweatshirts that say: “F--- the police.”

Legal experts say that the civil liberties of suspects are routinely sacrificed in raids, even if the accused have a tough time vindicating themselves in civil court.

Stephen Ryals, a Kansas City lawyer for 30 years who has lectured nationally and taught police recruits how to legally handle prisoners and detainees, said it is outrageous to think a seriously ill man would be denied medication simply because the jail’s nurse had gone home for the night, as Eaves alleged after his arrest. That kind of treatment is prohibited by law but hard to prove, he said.

“I feel that I’ve beaten my head against the law trying to convince people this is not OK,” Ryals said. “If a private entity did this, somebody would sue the (crap) out of them.”

John Bruzek, a former police officer and attorney in Iowa City, said the federal standard — police don’t have to be right, just reasonable — errs on the side of law enforcement.

Regarding the damage done in such raids, he said: “The problem is, how do you prove that’s intentional?”

Suspects are already likely to be viewed unfavorably, he said. So to win a case in court for deprivation of rights requires “pushing a jury up the hill, over the top and halfway down the hill to get them there.”

Opening a sex shop was not Eaves’ first choice, he said. The area didn’t have one, and he just saw an opportunity for a potentially profitable business.

An off-the-job injury while Eaves was helping at youth baseball resulted in his losing his job at the prison.

His Marfan syndrome, a crippling hereditary condition, destroys the body’s connective tissues. He also has two leaky heart valves, eye lens implants, body hardware and lots of pain — so a job that required doing anything physical was out of the question.

“I had already been turned down for disability, and I knew I needed to do something,” he said. “I had no insurance. I had nothing. And I had a large family to provide for.”

Three of his five children also have Marfan syndrome.

When I visited Eaves and his family last week, his mother, Patricia, told me her son’s first love was music, and he would have much preferred to teach guitar to local kids. But that wouldn’t support his family.

“I guess he should have just been disabled and dependent on the state,” she said bitterly.

The raid took place after a state patrolman questioned two men who admitted using products that they bought at the Pleasure Factor on U.S. Highway 61, about a mile north of Fort Madison.

The officers conducted a basic field test on the products, which resembled bath salts. One package called “Day Lights” turned up a positive result for a controlled substance. Another called “Night Lights” did not.

“There are a whole bunch of home products that set off those tests,” Eaves cautioned. “But that was enough for them to issue the search warrant.”

Eaves’ brother Alex, a guy who has never had more than a speeding ticket, said he was working behind the counter when more than a dozen members of the Lee County Drug Task Force and other law enforcement descended on the store.

“They kept telling me I was on a burning ship, and it was going down,” he said.

Eaves’ eldest son, Dillen, 17 at the time, said agents handcuffed him and threatened to put his younger siblings in foster care if he did not let them search the place.

When Jason Eaves pulled up to his business — he had been at his father’s house — one of the agents asked him: “How do you like killing the people of your community?”

Eaves offered to produce lab results from the company he had purchased the sex stimulants from, but he said drug task force member and lead investigator Adam Cates told him he didn’t care whether Eaves thought the substances were legal or not.

Eaves was arrested that afternoon. He contends agents confiscated thousands of dollars’ worth of products that were never recorded as items seized, tree bark from a vendor containing a small amount of a drug that is considered illegal, and a mix of Eaves’ personal possessions, including several expensive musical instruments.

A report from the DCI laboratory on April 24 shows almost all of the products described as synthetic drugs proved negative for illegal substances.

Eaves still faces a Jan. 22 trial for an alleged tax-stamp violation stemming from the brownish-red bark called Mimosa Hostilis. That product contained dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a psychedelic compound that is illegal in Iowa but still available for sale on the Internet.

Defense attorney Matt Bowles said he’s convinced there has been “a concerted effort to drop the hammer” on Eaves by law enforcement in Lee County. Normally in circumstances where other drug charges are dropped, the tax stamp violation would be, too, Bowles said.

But Short told me he has the evidence he needs to proceed with that charge.

Eaves has pleaded not guilty, saying all the products sold in the store were legal. He said the tree bark was sent to him by a supplier to sell, but he never did and he had forgotten all about it and left it in a storage area on his property.

Eaves said he researched DMT on the Internet and learned that in order to be used like a drug, the small amount in the tree bark would have to be extracted.

But he complained he was accused of possessing an amount of the DMT that was equal to the total weight of the bark.

“Let’s face it, there’s no way I am going to get a fair trial in this county,” he said.

Lee Rood’s Reader’s Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com or by calling 515-284-8549. Read past reports at DesMoinesRegister.com/Readers Watchdog.